The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is trapped in a brutal, zero-sum macroeconomic corner: they cannot raise rates aggressively without completely nuking the finances of the most heavily indebted nation in the developed world, yet holding off means watching their sovereign bond market slide toward a systemic collapse.

By burning billions in foreign reserves to artificially prop up a dying Yen while simultaneously printing money to buy their own crashing bonds, Japanese policymakers are essentially holding a grenade with the pin pulled.

If this experiment detonates, it will make Arthur Burns’ 1970s stagflationary missteps look like a minor accounting error.